The first map was from the demo mission, but in daylight, as it is in the single player mission that follows the demo. The entire map is there and intact and is surprisingly fun without many changes at all. Perhaps this is due to the basic nature of the game. Because the single player has so many soldiers fighting on each side, ducking, running, hiding, finding sniper positions, and so on, it already lends itself to team play fantastically.

The second map brought us to the hills just inside the Normandy shoreline. Those that have seen the opening mission in Band of Brothers will recognize this immediately. While we started out on this map in team deathmatch again, it was later switched to objective based play. The map itself was a pretty interesting design that took some time getting used to. It was actually a circle with boundaries on the outside of the circle in the form of a very deadly minefield that our old compatriot David Smith managed to find right off the bat. In the middle was a mess of shrubs and a hill that can't be climbed. But there are tunnels going through the mound to get to the other side. One side of the hill holds the Allied starting point while the other is home to two artillery pieces. The Allied objectives are to destroy them while the Axis hunkers down to protect them. The interesting thing here is that the game worked in a Counter-Strike fashion. Meaning once you die, you're dead until the next round. It certainly adds more strategy to the mix and tension. No one wants to run right into the enemy and have to sit out until the round is over.

But if you do happen to do this, you'll get the chance to check out the Kill Cam, which shows the few seconds before your death from the perspective of the person that killed you. So you can see how that guy snuck up behind you and shot you in the back or sniped you from a distance. It's actually pretty entertaining to see how you were offed. This feature works for any of the multiplayer modes. Another mode like this will actually allow players to watch the last few seconds of the player that managed to complete the last objective in a mission. Nothing wrong with a little bit of glory I suppose.

The next map put players back into team deathmatch, but this time with the Russians and Germans going at it. The Russians have a smaller selection of weapons to pick from, which I didn't like quite as much. One thing that can be said for all of the weapons in Call of Duty is that they look, sound, and feel fantastic. But if you happen to be a Russian in this level, you might find yourself snaking weapons from fallen German soldiers as I did. One of the coolest parts of this map was an area that seemed to concentrate some of the action. It actually was the second story of two separate buildings with windows facing each other. Getting in a firefight between these two buildings was a blast. There were usually a lot of dead bodies in each of those rooms.

The last map and mode for the night took place in a European town somewhere (whatever, I was too busy trying to kill people to pay attention) with a lot of buildings and plenty of places to get in close quarter fights. Running down the middle of the road through town can be a seriously dangerous proposition with so many windows looking down on the lane. The mode for this map was called Behind Enemy Lines. Basically, there were three Allied soldiers on the map with the rest Axis. The Axis players were charged with hunting down these Allied soldiers and killing them. Once an Axis player had killed an Ally, those players would switch teams and respawn. The object was to survive as long as possible as an Allied soldier. Allied soldiers would gain a point every 10 seconds they remained alive as well as a point for every Axis soldier killed during that time. The trick is, that as well as you hide, the Axis will find you. Each Axis player has question marks on their compass that tells them the last known location of the Allied soldiers. It was a pretty fun game of cat and mouse.

Up to 64 players will be able to join games in multiplayer, which we imagine will be pretty damn insane and we can't wait to try it out. Everything we saw in this game makes us believe that it should be in the forefront of people's minds this holiday season. Make sure to keep your eyes on it and look for it to hit store shelves this November. Now make sure check out that Call of Duty Video Preview when you get the chance to check out plenty of direct feed footage accompanied Steve's commentary, it's well worth it.